Electronic payment techniques have been developed that limit the possibility of fraudulent payment transactions. A Europay/Mastercard/Visa (“EMV”) system may be implemented with a passive electronic circuit that is a component of the payment card. Power is provided to the passive electronic circuit via a payment terminal that physically engages the passive electronic circuit or via inductive coupling with a wireless carrier signal that is transmitted by the payment terminal. The passive electronic circuit activates and communicates with the payment terminal via the physical or interface or by modulation of the wireless carrier signal. Payment information is encrypted by the passive electronic circuit prior to transmission to the payment terminal.
Near field communication (“NFC”) systems facilitate the transfer of data between electronic devices such as smart phones, smart watches, and tablets. NFC payment systems have been implemented in which an electronic device communicates payment information with a payment terminal that provides a wireless carrier signal. The electronic device and payment terminal communicate by modulating the wireless carrier signal. As with EMV payment systems, the NFC-enabled device may only send encrypted payment information to the payment terminal.
A payment terminal that processes EMV and NFC transactions may include hardware and software to perform a number of complex operations. The payment terminal may include physical and wireless interfaces for communicating with the chip cards or NFC devices. Transaction processing and encryption programs may be used to process payment information, and communication hardware and software may be necessary to communicate with a payment server or other electronic devices. A payment terminal may also implement numerous other functions such as user interface functions and input/output functions.